" W.Va. initiates AmberView program"
Student photo-ID chief hopes it catches on across United States

September 30, 2006

By Anna L. Mallory, Staff writer

School picture day now means more than making sure your hair is combed. That yearbook picture could save someone who has been kidnapped, say organizers of one West Virginia-developed program. Beginning this fall, students in all but one county in the state will be the first in the country to have their pictures uploaded into AmberView, a database used to identify people who have been kidnapped. The West Virginia Department of Education is behind the program, and only Mercer County has decided not to participate.

With parents’ consent, the photos from a school photographer’s digital archive and a physical description will be held at the West Virginia High Technology Consortium Foundation in Fairmont. In the case of a kidnapping, a 3-dimensional headshot and physical description can be released through the state’s AMBER Alert system. The images immediately can be sent to local, county and state authorities, courtesy patrols and media. Michele Morrison, the program’s coordinator, said school systems would have to verify only that the photos from a photographer’s CD match what is entered into the system.

But Mercer County Superintendent Deborah Akers questions that, explaining why her school system would take a wait-and-see approach to the AmberView program. “This is something we would not take lightly, because if you’re going to release this type of information it needs to be secure,” she said. “It didn’t seem to us that they really had the process well thought through. It seemed like it was going to take a tremendous amount of time on the part of our staff.” According to literature about the program, which was developed at the consortium in Fairmont, only the state’s AMBER Alert coordinator and his designates could access the database.

Morrison said West Virginia is the only state in the nation to have implemented such a program, but she’s hoping others soon will follow suit. The AmberView program was created through a U.S. Department of Justice grant secured by Rep. Allan Mollohan, D-W.Va. “There is a lot of interest,” Morrison said. “We plan to talk to surrounding states, but we’ve already received requests from places as far away as California, Texas and Alaska.” According to the Justice Department, a child is reported missing every 40 seconds in the United States, About 74 percent of abducted children who are murdered are dead within three hours of being kidnapped, about the time it traditionally takes police to get a photo of a missing child. Morrison said the technology could be spread to include sex offenders or other criminals.

Most parents of elementary school children should have received consent forms. Middle and high school students will receive theirs soon. Any student older than 7 also will have to give consent. Students who miss school picture day can have their information added if they go to another photographer and contact the program. “It just has to be a clear picture of their face,” Morrison said.

For current information, visit the AmberView web site or contact the Pendleton County Board of Education.